A CRISIS OF INFIDELITY

A CRISIS OF INFIDELITY

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - SUN. AUG. 26, 2018

By Robert P. George who is Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, where he teaches constitutional interpretation and philosophy of law - First Things 8.20.18 - This is a most serious message.

    "At the heart of the recent Catholic scandals is infidelity - literally the lack of faith. There are priests, including bishops and even cardinals, who do not believe in God, or whose belief in God is merely notional (as definitively evidenced by their lack of fear of Him). In any event, they don't believe what the Catholic Church teaches about morality ( and by morality, I mean not only sexual morality, but also our obligations to love and respect, and not to exploit or abuse, others), or at least they are unwilling unable to embrace that teaching and embody it in a constant way in their lives and ministries. So they are unfaithful to, among other things, their vows of chastity and the Church's teachings about sex and marriage and the duty never to exploit or abuse.

What is the answer? Well, fundamentally the answer to infidelity is fidelity. That is what is needed.  As my late friend Fr. Richard John Neuhaus put it, "fidelity, fidelity, fidelity." There is no proper place for unfaithful priests (of any rank) in the Church. If a man does not believe what the Church teaches about God, about the dignity of the human person, about sex and marriage, or about justice, he should not function as a priest or serve as bishop.... he should not be ordained (if he is, or proposes to become, a seminarian) or, he is already ordained, his priestly should be removed. PERIOD. ...

    But even where serious wrongdoing is not illegal, it must not be tolerated. Of course, none of us gets through the day without sinning and needing to repent and be reconciled. (In the Catholic understanding of Christian faith, conversion is an ongoing and lifelong process beginning with baptism.) So what I am talking about here are grave sins, including not only exploitation and abuse but also serious sins against chastity such as fornication, adultery, and sodomy. These are signs for everyone, of course, but when committed by priests they take on the character of sacrilege and are generally even more scandalous than when committed by lay people....and when they involve prepubescent   children there is simply no word strong enough to convey the depth of their wickedness.

   

    So here is what need to happen going forward.  No one should be ordained or retained by his bishop as a priest (and certainly no one should be consecrated as a bishop) who does not believe, and is not prepared publicly in carrying out his priestly ministry to proclaim, the teaching of the Church on all points on which the Church solemnly teaches - including her teachings, in all particulars, on the dignity of the human person, on sex and marriage, and on the requirement of justice.  .... Any priest (of any rank - going all the way up to pope) who is guilty of such misconduct should be stripped of his priestly faculties....

    Priests must believe and preach what the Church holds true about God and man - and must practice what they preach. Am I advocating a zero-tolerance policy towards grave sexual sins, such as fornication, adultery, and sodomy (even when committed by consenting adults)? Yes, I am. ... These sins are toxic to the priestly ministry. Priest who cannot or will avoid them cannot carry out there mission.

    Theodore McCarrick should have been prosecuted for his alleged crimes against boys. But even apart from those crimes, McCarrick should be stripped of his office and dismissed from the active priesthood for his sexual activity with adult men, including seminarians.  The same would be true if his sexual partners had been women rather than men.... And what I say about McCarrick applies to every priest of any rank who disgraces the priesthood by committing grave sexual sins in defiance of his vow of chastity.... literally cannot be tolerated. It is poison in the bloodstream of the Church."

George H. Kubeck

P.S. The shock is to realize  that there are priests & bishops who have lost faith & belief in Jesus Christ. Over the decades, the financial cost  to U.S. Catholic Church members has been slightly less than 3 BILLION DOLLARS.  In another matter, if no action is taken by the U.S. Catholic Bishops on the matter of the CINOP, then we have a continued cover-up & infidelity. Canon Law & St. John Paul II's "Catechism of the Catholic Church" is my guide.